Oxytocin
by SiriusThing
Summary: An increase in Oxytocin level can be a sign of falling love, but it can also due to their pity for one another. Does romance exist between these two or not?
1. Chapter 1

_**Oxytocin has long been described as the 'empathy hormone', the 'cuddle hormone' or even the 'love hormone'. Why? It's because this neurotransmitter/hormone is involved in empathy, trust, hugging, sexual activity and relationship-building.**_

 **Chapter 1**

This night, the sidewalks in Seattle appeared to be so dim in contrast to the very bright street lamp. A brunette walked out of the Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital and slowly headed to Joe's, the bar that is right across the road of the hospital and a usual gathering spot of the doctors. She wasn't sure if that was a good idea at all. She hesitated as she pulled the handle of the door of the bar. She kept pacing back and forth. She knew her friend got pulled into an emergent surgery and would not be able to accompany her for the next 30 minutes or so. She was scared. It was not her first time going into a bar. She had been to places like this many times. The fact that bars were too familiar to her made her even more afraid. 'I'm a recovering alcoholic. I'm about to walk into a bar, but I'm fine now and I will still be when I walk out of this bar,' she reassured herself before going in.

'Oh, Dr. Shepherd. You shouldn't be here,' said the proud owner of the bar, a middle-aged man, Joe, who knew almost all the doctors in that hospitals, as he noticed the presence of Amelia at this forbidden place. That was not an eviction of any kind but rather a kind reminder. He knew about Amelia's struggles with drugs and alcohol. He really didn't want his bar to be the place where Amelia fell off the wagon again.

Amelia noted his good intention. 'I'm just here to check on Arizona. April said she called earlier and sounded so depressed on the phone. April is worried about her, but there was a car crash and she got pulled into an emergency surgery, so she asked me to go check on her. I tried her cell but she wasn't answering. I cannot find her anywhere and I guess she might be here,' she explained.

'Yeah, she's here, again. In the corner,' he put down the cloth that he was wiping the glass with and pointed Amelia to the direction where Arizona was sitting.

Amelia grabbed one of the black tall-leg stools and sit beside Arizona. 'Hey!' Amelia greeted and interrupted Arizona, who planned to pour another glass of white wine for herself. 'You should not be here,' with the little soberness, she still managed to think clearly somehow. 'Yes, I shouldn't. But April has an emergency surgery to do so she sends me to check on you instead,' Amelia explained again, justifying her impermissible presence in the bar and somehow remind herself once again that she was only there for Arizona, not to drink.

'Why?' Arizona mumbled. She looked at Amelia with her red and puffy eyes. 'Why did I come? April and I are worried about you,' Amelia tried to make out her question from one simple question word and made a guess. 'No, why….would you... the person whom I barely know…...be...here for me...instead of the women I gave my heart away to? 'Arizona uttered. It was very true, Arizona and Amelia barely know each other. Although they both did their residency at John Hopkins, they were rivals at that time fighting to be the best surgeon in their class. They did work together and became more close during the Herman case, but still Arizona always felt like there was some kind of invisible barriers between them. Their busyness and perhaps their hostile past. And even though now that Amelia would sometimes show up in Zola and Sofia's playdates, their topics circled around the kids and work. They really weren't close enough for Amelia to take the chance to go into a bar and find her. Afterall, their relationship fell somewhere in between acquaintance and friends, but not that kind of friends would endanger yourself for the other one.

If it's not for the broken sentences, the clarity of Arizona's mind almost made Amelia question if she was really drunk. 'All the women I loved... left me, Amelia….They don't…. care.. about me….. They don't... care how heartbroken…. I'm when they left. They just left without even ….looking back. First, Callie divorced me. Then, Eliza ghosted me. And now, Carina... '

Amelia could tell there was definitely some sobbing involved in this drunk talking, but she was if it was mostly Arizona's drunkenness or weeping that disturb her fluency. Despite that, she could totally relate to her feelings. 'Well, to be fair, all the men I loved died. My father, Ryan, my son and Derek. They all died. They also left me without giving me any notice. I don't even have a chance to say a proper goodbye,' she poured her heart out, hoping this would bring some resonance to Arizona and let her know that she was not the only one dealing with loved ones departing from their life. Even though she was certain about her motive and determined to cheer up Arizona, it still hurted a lot talking about them. A sharp ache in her heart was accompanied by an instant feeling that she couldn't breathe. She still felt it. The pain was still so real. Tears started to well up in her eyes and blurred her vision.

'I'm so sorry, Amelia,' Arizona now felt bad for her so she placed a hand on Amelia's lap, wishing that this might help her feel better. She felt so guilty that she led their conversation went that way. 'No, it's okay,' Amelia said looking into Arizona bright blue eyes. Her eyes were like a lake. They were so calm, so soothing, and so peaceful, somehow, Amelia felt like they could take away her pain that had been following her for years. She didn't know what that feeling was. In that exact moment, she could feel blood rushing in her veins and every single one of her heartbeats when Arizona's hand landed on her thigh. As a well-trained neurosurgeon, Amelia could explain these physiological effects on her body without a doubt. It was due to the increase in secretion of norepinephrine and epinephrine in her adrenal cortex, but she wasn't sure what the stimuli was. Was she attracted to Arizona or was she just a little bit surprised by this intimacy? Amelia debated in her head.

Suddenly, a couple walked into the bar and pulled Amelia out of her thoughts.

The redhead man wrapped his hand around the woman's waist. Amelia and Arizona's gaze fell on them with nothing but loathe.

'You know how much I hate Owen now? I mean, we talked about getting back the horse, but I never imagined he can find someone this fast.' Amelia joked. She knew making Arizona laugh maybe the only way to get her off wine and talk about her problems instead. 'You know...dating is not a competition, right?' Arizona said in the tone she normally used to talk to Sofia. 'And for your information, I still feel bitter every time when I see those two around. I still feel like Carina left me for Owen, like Owen stole my girlfriend,' Arizona tried to be as focus as she could be when she talked so she could sound more serious while giving this comment.

'Since we both hate Owen right now, do you want to get back at him?' Amelia joked. She dared Arizona as if she was the one who was drunk even though the fact was that she was totally clean and sober for more than two years now. She just had these crazy ideas swirling in her brain all the time, even after the removal of her brain tumor. 'How?' Arizona asked curiously. She was expecting an answer, but instead Amelia pulled her closer. Their eyes locked. Amelia's turquoise eyes reminded Arizona of gemstones. Raw, beautiful and shone like they would give out some kind of radiants,

Their lips touched. For a moment, Amelia enjoyed it and so did Arizona. However, the smell of liquor lingered in Arizona's breath and drew Amelia to pull away. Now, she was finally sane enough realized how bad her idea actually was. 'I'm so sorry, That is very wrong of me to….' Amelia apologized. 'No, it's fine and I think we fulfil your intention,' Arizona said staring and signalling Amelia to look at the shocked couple from the distance.

'Maybe we should go,' Amelia suggested. 'Yea,' Arizona was still not quite over the fact that Amelia Shepherd just kissed her on the lips. Amelia Shepherd, her archrival back in their times during residency and her co-worker for now.

Now, she lost track on what she could do.

'I'm very sorry. I was stupid and… and impulsive. Let me at least pick up your tabs,' Amelia apologized once again. 'Ok,' Arizona was just so over her head and her drunkenness hindered her reflux and did not notice the fact that her tone sounded very much like a lovesick teenage girl while Amelia, on the other hand, was too struck by that kiss and became too preoccupied to notice that.

 _ **The oxytocin level at the time was sky high, it's not only sympathy, but also there was more to it, something pink and bubbly like every girl dream of.**_

Taking a very drunk grown woman back to her house turned out to be not an easy task. With the puking, slurring of speech and occasional handsy moves finally had Amelia convinced that Arizona was really drunk.

Once Amelia managed to call an Uber, settled Arizona in it and told the driver the direction, she actually wanted to go. She couldn't be anywhere near her for one more second. She was drenched in alcohol, even her smell made her want to crave so bad. She wanted a shot of vodka. One would be enough for her. Just one would be enough for her. Just one. On the other hand, her intuition told her that she would not be able to stop once she got this drink, never, really. Everything she did tonight turned out to be huge mistakes. Promising April to look for Arizona and take care of her, going into a bar, kissing Arizona... She's an idiot. She did everything an addict doesn't suppose to do in one night. She need to go. So desperately need to go.

'Amelia….stay…..'once again, Arizona made Amelia confused about how lucid she actually was. With those puppy blue eyes made any denial of her requests seemed like a felony. Ok, fine. Amelia thought to herself. Maybe, taking Arizona back home would actually keep her busy enough to stop thinking about drinking. She didn't know if she was making this up as an excuse or she genuinely wanted to be there for Arizona.

Finally, they arrived at Arizona's house. Deluca was on call tonight so the duo was back alone in an empty house.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

It was rare to have a sunny day in Seattle. It's usually cloudy and rainy. Sometimes, people wonder if the poor weather would lead to terrible moods or it may work the other way round.

Waking up in her own bed, Arizona realized something was different in her room. A head of deep brown hair was the first thing she saw. Silky and wavy, but she could not match this beautiful brown hair to whom its owner was. She was too drunk last night to remember anything. Her only memory was going to Joe's and then everything just blacked out.

Amelia woke up and yawned. 'Good morning, I hope you're feeling better now,' she said in a soft voice. She pulled the sheets closer to her and that was the moment when Arizona realized Amelia was naked underneath.

 _Oh, god. We didn't have sex. Didn't we?_ Arizona thought. She could barely remember anything from last night but somehow she kept thinking about the kiss that she and Amelia shared. It was gentle but yet memorable. _Was that an illusion? Or a really weird sexual fantasy?_ Arizona was almost always certain that a few drinks would make her horny but still she was not sure if she had slept with Amelia.

'I need to borrow your half of the sheet to pop over to the dryer to get my clothes that was deluged in your vomit last night, 'Amelia said while trying to roll herself to wrap herself thoroughly with the thin piece of sheet.

'Still not feel like wearing any underwear? 'Arizona blurted out. She realized how inappropriate it would had sounded the second she finished her question but she truly didn't know where did that question came from, let alone, where she had gotten this information from. Amelia chuckled in response. The whole room was loaded with awkwardness in the air.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

In the hospital, Meredith was upset that she called Amelia's phone for the millionth time and she still hadn't answer once. (By the way, she had already given up texts or any kind already. She knew Amelia too well that she would only read them and not even bother to reply.) 'Meredith, I need to talk to you,' Owen pulled Meredith to the side. He could tell something was bothering Meredith everything when she frowns and gives that look. 'What?' Meredith hassled. 'Well, it's not important now. What's bothering you?' Owen asked. He promised Cristina that he would take care of her when she's gone and now maybe he need to be her 'person' for a moment to find out what's causing her in such a bad mood. 'Amelia didn't come home last night. I keep calling her and she doesn't pick up,' Meredith explained. 'I bet she spent the night at Robbins','Owen smirked with irony mixed with a little bit of anger in his voice. 'Ok, you know something,' Meredith had retired gossiping in the hospital. She really didn't want to pry into other people's private life, but when that person in question was her sister-in-law, that wasn't snooping, that's merely concern. 'Well, I was in the bar with Carina last night and we saw Amelia kissed Arizona,' Owen continued.

'Okay,' Meredith digested the information and accepted it quickly .'What? You aren't a bit shocked at all. There's no "I never thought Amelia was gay" reaction?' To Owen's surprise, Meredith took the news relatively calmly. 'To be honest, everyone in this hospital, no, everyone seems much more gayish these days so you'll never know. Come on, we all thought you and Nathan were a couple when he first came when you hated each other's guts. Plus, I'm relieved that she did not relapse and died OD on some blind alley in the middle of nowhere.' Despite the indifference (or maybe a little bit sarcastic) she sounded, that was actually her greatest fear. Just by thinking about it terrified Meredith to death. 'Sure, It may seem like an odd pairing with an odding timing, but they had great chemistry together during the Herman case,' she continued and made a little comment. Owen came up with a conspiracy theory, 'You think it's weird too. It seems like they are dating now just to get revenge on Carina and I.'

'First, I never thought I would ever say this but please don't be an egotistical ass and second why do you care so much? You guys are over. You are dating someone else. You moved on so you can't be jealous. You don't have the right to,' Meredith replied while she made a mental note to ask about the nature of Amelia's relationship with Arizona later.

'Yea, I guess you're right. I should be happy for her. I moved on, and so should she. She deserves this. She deserves better,' Owen realized. As much as he didn't want to, they were divorced, he had to let go.

Back in Arizona's house, 'Hey, do you need a glass of water or something? ' Amelia offered after change back into her clothes. 'No, thanks I'm fine, you've done enough for me already, ' Arizona was already feeling sorry that she had not been a proper hostess the night before and now guilt just swept over her. She got up in bed and found her prosthetic laying on her bed on the spot where Amelia slept in. Amelia must have placed it there when she left the bed to save the trouble for Arizona. Arizona had almost forgotten how thoughtful and considerate Amelia could be to someone she really cared about. When she was positioning her prosthetic on her left leg, she could smell the amazing scent of her breakfast being cooked in her kitchen.

'I'm not sure if stupid Koracick has cut something he shouldn't cut and ruined my ability to cook,' Amelia jested. 'He's not me afterall,' she continued.

'And yet you slept with him,' Arizona pointed out. She was not sure if she couldn't stand her cookiness or she was jealous that even Koracick, her insufferable mentor, got to slept with her but she couldn't. She thought all her crushes towards Amelia had been buried deep down to the bottom of her heart years ago. Apparently, they didn't go just go away and now they resurfaced again.

'How do you know? 'Amelia blushed. 'Well, according to the interns, you two were in an on-call room for hours. He certainly didn't cut anywhere that may affect your sex drive,' _Oh, gosh, hangovers are the worst._ Arizona thought to herself. Stupid inappropriate things just kept slipping out of her tongue. Her mind was not functioning normally and she dreaded to look at Amelia's reaction.

'Anyway, breakfast is ready,' Amelia said in a ice-cold voice. Arizona was able to recognise her stern face. It was the face she saw too many times in Hopkins. She knew she did something unforgivable here and wanted to rectify the situation.

The silence over breakfast was filled with tension. The insufferable silence was almost torturing to Arizona. Just like what she always taught her daughter, Arizona knew she need to she had offended Amelia and she need to apologize for that eventually.

'I'm sorry. It's my hangover. My filter basically just shut down,' Arizona felt like a thousand words cannot help describing how sorry she was. She knew it sounded like she was making excuses, but she had to say something to break the ice.

'Hmm…'Amelia replied, continuing slicing her bacon into pieces. She seemed like she wanted to say something but words just couldn't form. She didn't know what to say. She hadn't feel this powerless with words since she regained her ability to speak English after her surgery. This was something different. Something even more worse. Was she upset by the comments Arizona made? Yes, a little bit. She wasn't her place to say anything like that. Still, she knew a person could never take their words back. She knew it too well because she used to lack filters too, so part of her chose to cut Arizona some slack and forgive her. But all that was just her rational part speaking. The other half of her could not bring herself to not be pissed at Arizona. It was just like residency all over again. She was now infuriated by something Arizona did not on purpose. Why was she feeling like this? She really did not have a clue.

The rest of the breakfast continued with either quietness or exchange of short sentences. Anyone could tell that both walking on eggshells.

'Do you need me to call in sick for you today? 'Amelia asked kindly before she left. 'It's nice of you, but no, my shift start at two this afternoon. My headache should be gone by then,' Arizona respond. 'Yeah, take care then,' Amelia then called a cab and went back to the hospital.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

'I'm so, so, so sorry,' April rushed to Amelia's side when she first saw her entering the hospital elevator. 'I would never have sent you last night if I knew she was in Joe's. Drunk,' she said with great sincerity but the way she squeaked in her high-pitched voice just made Amelia wanted to laugh so badly.

Amelia resisted her urge to laugh and hid all that under a small grin. 'You know what? I was the one who offered to find her so it's not on you,' she tried to comfort April.

'Still, I'm sorry,' April said in a much more calm and normal tone this time. 'I'm ok. Still clean. Not a drop of alcohol in my system so don't be too hard on yourself,' Amelia said before she exited the elevator when it reached the neuro floor.

Just when she thought all this melodrama in her life ended, and she could finally get back to work. She bumped into Meredith.

'Mer, what a lovely surprise to see you here. Need a neuro consult?' Amelia wondered why her sister-in-law would be waiting for her in the neuro department.

'Cut the crap. Amelia, you can't suddenly go from 'dark and twisty' to 'perky and bubbly' just by dating Robbins,' Meredith said half-jokingly. She knew there was no faster way than cutting to the chase and get Amelia to answer her questions directly. She knew she's no Addison and would never get Amelia to talk to her heart to heart just by starting with small chats.

'Who told you I'm dating Arizona?' Amelia giggled. This officially topped the time when Eliza thought her name was Amilio in both the scores for surprise and hilariousness.

'Owen,' Meredith knew she would have to give up her source in exchange for an answer. Amelia thought for awhile and made the verdict. She decided that it was better for the whole hospital (and even her own sister) to be mislead to convince that Arizona and her were dating, rather than having the whole hospital looking at them with pity and colleagues and friends constantly nagging them to date. _What is wrong with these people anyway? Don't they have a job to do? Can't they ok with the fact that a person can survive just fine without a mate?_ Amelia did weigh her options and decided this might indeed be a better one.

'It's complicated,' she finally gave this vague answer. 'Ok, but just for your own sake, sort things out with her as soon as possible, ' Meredith advised. Amelia knew Meredith was not going to invade her privacy in the beginning. She had heard that Meredith and Derek were the Brangelina on the hospital gossip train so she knew she would understand. She just asked to check if she was fine.

The day was long without any interesting case surfacing. Even much longer when you found yourself becoming the center of the latest hospital gossips. Apparently, Owen and Carina were not the only two present to witness that kiss. A handful of interns were also there and contributed a lot in the spreading of the rumour.

'I heard they were banging since Dr. Herman's case but then, they broke up,' one of the interns or residents (Arizona really didn't remember that) was chatting with her peers so loudly as if she thought there was nobody around in the cafeteria. 'So Dr. Hunt was just the rebound? 'the other one asked. 'Of course, he was, she just married him to agitate Dr. Robbins to get back with her,' another one joined in. 'Wow, marrying the rebound. That's dedication,' the first one said. 'I heard their thing went way back. They both did their residency in John Hopkins. The same year, even.' Finally, this one seemed to notice Arizona's presence and his voice faded out and he tried to signalled his peers.

'Dr. Shephard, a moment please,' Arizona found Amelia waiting for her coffee near the register and grabbed her out to an empty hallway.

'What? 'Amelia pulled her poker face. She was obviously still bothered by the incident in the morning.

'Why did you tell Meredith that our relationship is "complicated"? Now, the whole hospital just assume we really are a thing. It's just purely ridiculous because it's not even halfway convincing. You're not even gay, 'Arizona found herself talking really first while trying not to redden in front of Amelia. She swore she would never fall for a straight girl again and yet here she was, harbouring all her feeling for Amelia, clarifying to both Amelia and herself that there were nothing happening between them just to remind herself of let go of her false hopes.

'First of all, for your information, I'm bi. How can you not know for these many years. There must be something wrong with your gaydar,' Amelia smirks. 'Second of all, how did you know about my conversation with Meredith? 'she asked.

'Well, an neuro nurse eavesdropped on you and shared the information with a bunch of other nurses. And you know how this kind of news travels. I guess that's is why the whole hospital know about our "complicated" relationship by now,' Arizona said with a bit irk in her voice.

'I'm sorry. I thought it would be get people off our back about dating. I didn't thought it would become something this big. I'm sorry that it cause you any trouble, but I get we are even now. Two for two,' Amelia beamed.

'Two for two? 'Arizona's mind was still processing what Amelia had just said. She's bisexual, which means, she could actually have a chance with her.

'The kiss last night and this whole mess,' Amelia explained. 'Get even with the things I said this morning?' Arizona interrupted.

'Probably,' Amelia let out an awkward grin.

'Hmm...sounds fair, 'Arizona answered in her usual perky voice. 'But how are we going to deal with our 'complicated' relationship? Are you going to continue giving those vague answers? ' she asked.

'Seriously, I don't know. I think this little prank has already gone too far by now. It doesn't matter what we do or say. Besides, I don't know about you but I really don't want anyone to pressure me into dating anymore,' Amelia sighed.

'Huh, you're telling me,' Arizona could not agree more. 'Dating is way overrated. They're just exhausting and time-consuming and I don't even have time to catch up on the recent issue of neonatal journal.'

'We don't even have to do anything at this point,' Amelia teased.

'Yea,' Arizona responded.

 **This sounds like a pretty smart thing to do so effortless, so easy to achieve their aim, but is this really their aim? When you think of it, this is just a stunt that two cowards too scared of admitting their feeling for each other pulled.** **A delicate lie came up fool everyone but not themselves.**


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry, I deleted the previous Chapter 5. I posted it in a rush and didn't notice that there were a lot of mistakes. Anyway, here is the one after edition. So, enjoy.

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

Two people made two really similar phone calls that night. They even both began with the same sentence.

'Addie, I screwed up. '

'Teddy, I screwed up.'

1135 miles away(in LA), Addison Montgomery picked up the phone.

'No, no, Henry you have to add one to both sides of the equation so y equals to four,' Addison instructed her son before she went back to the phone again to see who's calling. The number of people who had called to talk about their problems throughout the years was surprisingly high. She couldn't identify who that was just by listening to the first sentence.

'You're teaching my godson algebra? He's six, isn't he a little too young for that? Addison, tell me you're not turning into one of those 'tiger moms' now,' Amelia overheard Addison teaching Henry some pretty advanced Maths for his young age, so she couldn't help to step in because she did care a lot her godson's interest after all.

'For your information, Henry told me what the teachers taught in school is too easy and asked me to teach him something harder. And Amelia, I know you're not calling just to criticize my parenting style. What's wrong? ' Addison defended.

'No, I'm certainly not. But I don't think it's a good idea. If my memory serves me right, you weren't exactly the best Maths tutor. Remember the time when you tried to teach me Calculus when I was in high school? I didn't even know taking the derivative means finding the slope of tangent of a curve after doing a bunch of differential equations,' Amelia babbled.

'And you are certainly not calling to insult my poor Maths teaching skills. Seriously, Amelia, why are you calling?' Knowing Amelia well, Addison was well-aware of her habit of diverging from the subject when things were too overwhelming for her.

'I did something stupid. I kissed Arizona and misled the whole hospital into thinking we're dating. It was originally a practical joke but now I think, I think I may have actually fallen for her,' Amelia confided to Addison, her former sister-in-law, who knew her better than any of her sisters or perhaps even herself.

'Ok,' Addison listened patiently and gave a short answer in order to let Amelia continue and think about what Amelia had just said.

'I don't know. I'm scared. Addie, I don't know what to do. I haven't felt this way towards a woman in a long time. I'm scared,' Amelia went on, and didn't notice that she was subconsciously stressing on the fact that she had not date a single female in a long time.

Addison knew she was anxious. She was concerned because of her past history with dating female.'You know she is not Chloe,right?' Addison emphasized. She needs Amelia to understand that. She was the only one who knew the part of Amelia's drug addiction story that she withheld from everyone else.

Amelia had never mentioned how important the friend who introduced her to drugs was to her. Chloe, her first girlfriend, the first person she ever dated. She introduced her to the captivating world of drugs, illusions, the world without any pain and suffering. Like drugs, Chloe was beautiful and intoxicating but extremely bad for her in every single possible way. She messed her up badly and still she had never stopped thinking about her.

She thought she never felt like that again, until Ryan came along, but he's dead. And now, all those feelings resurfaced from nowhere for Arizona. Amelia could not distinguish her feeling for Chloe and Ryan from the influence of drugs. She knew more or less those little seemingly harmless pills messed up her reward pathway and her reuptake of neurotransmitters. Her attractions towards them could be fallacious and even worse hallucinatory. However, she could not unravel why she was feeling the same way with Arizona. She was 100% sober this time. Her judgment was totally neither impact by either those chemical compounds nor her brain tumor.

'I know, but the feelings, it felt so much alike,' Amelia sighed.

'I know, but that's what happens when you fall in love. It felt like the same every time,' Addison shared.

'Every time? I thought you are a big believer in 'the one',' Amelia was confused.

'Yea, I used to. But then I realized I had these same feelings with Derek and then Mark and Sam and now Jake so I changed my mind,' Addison sighed as she recollected every little moments she spent with all these men.

'If your feelings for her is really that intense then go for it, you don't really want to re-enact my whole drama with Sam again, do you?,' Addison knew her little sister deserves better, someone who can be able to take care of her. She didn't know if Arizona would be the one right for her, but she sensed that this might be the beginning of a budding relationship so she just encouraged her to go for her.

'No, I don't.' Amelia replied. Then, they switched to talk about the new things happening around in Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.

After listening to Addison's pep talk, Amelia still wasn't sure about what she should do. Given her history of substance abuse, it's not wise to make any moves without careful considerations. Otherwise, she would be pushing herself to the brink of relapse again.

5093 miles away in Darmstadt, Germany, Teddy Altman picked up the phone.

'Arizona, do you have any idea that it's 6 am here?' It was the first sentence Teddy said. Even though Arizona was an old friend, she helped to be cranky and yelled at her a little. Afterall, she had just got 2 hours of sleep after 3 back-to-back surgeries the day before.

'Oh, sorry I waked you up. Do you need to go back to sleep? I can hang up the phone, 'Arizona said. Her voice trembled a little. Her authority issues seemed to be getting worse through time and now even extended to her friends who yell at her.

'No. It's okay. You've already woke me up. What's up? 'Teddy asked in a more gentle and concerning voice. She realized her harsh voice earlier may have spooked her friend a little.

'I did something stupid. I was so upset after Carina and I accidentally broke up. I went out drinking and then Amelia fished me out of the bar urgh… Owen and Carina walking into the bar, hugging. Oh, did I mention that Carina and Owen started hooking up after we broke up. Anyway, and then Amelia had this great idea to kiss in front of them as a revenge. I know it was meant to be a joke but then I started to have all these feelings for her. Oh, gosh, really, I mean, she's attractive,very attractive, I thought that the first time I saw her in Hopkins, but…'

While Teddy was impressed by her friend's ability to talk really fast, she couldn't keep her mind off thinking about the fact that Owen is now dating someone else. 'Wait, you're talking about Amelia Shepherd, as in Owen's ex-wife, 'she interrupted.

'Well, soon-to-be. I heard they had filed their paperwork and everything had not been finalized yet,' Arizona added.

'I can't believe Owen go for someone else again. I always thought we are meant to be, but I guess it will never happen, huh? Him being with someone is not an excuse anymore, he never wanted to be with me,' Teddy said.

'Oh, Teddy,' Arizona had forgotten that her friend did not know about Owen and Carina, she felt sorry for her. She was also guilty that she had been too involved that she forgot to give her a head-up or at least break the news to her in a more delicate way.

'You already have your plate pretty full now. Don't be too hung up on my problem. Let's talk about yours first,' Teddy said.

That was what Arizona loved about Teddy. She always put others before herself, no matter how miserable herself is at the time. She is not a good friend as she promised to be, Teddy is.

'You deserve someone better. You deserve someone who's not playing hard to get, some who won't leave you hanging for years,' Arizona tried

'You're not telling me you love me in the next sentence, are you?' Teddy joked. She didn't know what else to say other than teasing her friend in that time. She didn't want to make their conversation more tense.

'Of course, no,' Arizona chuckled.

Arizona and Teddy then moved to talk about interesting cases happening in their hospital, like the idiotic girl who tried to smuggle a gun into the prison for her boyfriend.

'It's nice catching up with you,' Arizona said at the end of the call. Like all her best friends in life, she and Teddy somehow became estranged. The geographical location difference became their barrier and separated them into two different zones.

'You too,' Teddy recognized that feeling. She felt that same way the last time she was in Seattle, chatting and laughing with Owen like in the old time. All that seemed like so many years ago, and yet that was just a few weeks earlier. That kiss was so mesmerizing, she wanted to forget it, but she found herself not able to. She was still sure that it was the right thing that she didn't kiss back, but she couldn't help wonder what might happen if she did. Would Owen be with her now instead of Carina? And then she realized how stupid she was thinking about all these what-if situations instead of seizing her time to go back to sleep after hanging up the phone.


End file.
